Between Reality & Dreams
by Torchwood85
Summary: "You are and will always be my impossible dream. But My Alice would never be seduced by such a darkness as that which lies within me. And so she, you cannot be." Talice [One shot]


"You'll be late you know," She chides softly as she glances up at his profile in the waning moonlight, "McTwisp will have a conniption."

The Hatter's lip quirks in amusement at the prospect. "I'm sure he will."

She turns, seating herself upon the rail to face him as he gazes wistfully out at the falls.

"Please don't tell me you've chosen to simply not show up?"

"Far too many should be disappointed I think should I not be in attendance for the Hightopp's return to court," He muses wryly, "Rest assured though I've every intention of making an appearance once I've gathered my thoughts and properly pondered them as they deserve."

She shivers as the night air whips her now shorn locks about her face, "Not that it isn't lovely of course, but why here?"

"This is my home," The Hatter tuts as if it were obvious, "Where else would you have me keep them?"

"Somewhere a tad warmer?" She offers with a wry grin, "The kitchen perhaps?"

He smiles at that, "Ah but it's not the same though is it."

"No, I suppose not." She agrees equally as softly, a comfortable silence settling between the two for a time before he speaks again.

"I built this house with you in mind did you know?" He queries with a loving glance towards the woman at his side as his fingers caress the balustrading she sits upon, "Well not _this_ you of course, the _real_ you."

She scowls, "Now who's dictating reality and dreams."

"You are gone never to return again," He sighs, "Our realities were once intertwined but never joined. All that remains now are memories and dreams of what cannot be."

"Do you dream of me as often as I do you?"

"Any moment I can spare it." He admits with a grin only to have it fall away to a wistfully melancholic quirk of his lip.

"You're sulking," She teases gently, "Admittedly it's not one of your more attractive looks."

It's his turn to scowl, "Am not."

"Are too," She quips, nudging his leg with her foot as it swings lightly off the floor, "It's all right you know. I miss you too."

"Off on your adventures above I think not," He shakes his head, "Too much excitement to be had to think on an old Hatter like me."

"I love you, ridiculous Milliner," She chastises with a pointed glare, "Why in both worlds would you think I'd not keep you in mind every second of every day that we're apart?"

He smiles sadly in response, "It's nice of you to say so but-"

"Don't you dare deny being in love with me too Tarrant Hightopp." She warns.

"Since the very first moment I'd laid eyes on you." Hatter whispers his agreement.

"You were seven years old." She reminds him with a dubious raise of her brow.

"I was a rather impulsive child was I not?" He muses fondly, "Though I must admit I'd not truly realised the extent of my affections until that day in Salazen Grum."

The hint of a smirk curls her lip at the admission. "I came to rescue you."

"You did," He grins absurdly in recollection, "Even though you'd not truly remembered me then, well, couldn't have in fact. You of course not yet being the you I'd remembered because you hadn't become that muchier you I'd already met."

"If it hadn't been for you I'd never have become the me you'd remembered me to be," She reminds him softly as she reaches out to gently gather his fingers in her own, "It hurt you know, to run away and just leave you there with _her_. And then when Chessur brought news of your execution I- even if I had believed you only a dream at the time my heart ached at the thought of never seeing you again."

His lips curl far too knowingly as he replies, "I'd never any intention of leaving this world nor you behind."

Her eyes widen suddenly in surprise, "You had a plan all along?"

"I incited a rebellion from the confines of Thackery's tea table," The Hatter smirks as the outlander rises to the surface and turns his pale gaze upon her, "O'course I had a plan."

Her breath hitches as she reaches out to gently caress the darkened pallor beneath his eyes, her knuckles lightly grazing his cheek to trail down along his jaw before he catches it with his free hand and brings it against his chest as he moves against the railing.

"You've no idea how I've missed this you Hatter," She murmurs, their faces so close now she can taste the sweetness of his breath break across her lips, "Whenever my courage waned I would imagine you as you were stood at my side as we faced the Jabberwocky, and I knew that nothing was indeed impossible if I only just believed it to be otherwise."

"You are and will always be my impossible dream," His expression seems pained at the admission as his eyes dull back to a shade less than their usual green, "But My Alice would never be seduced by such a darkness as that which lies within me. And so she, you cannot be."

"Your Alice is not a child anymore Hatter," She whispers almost apologetically, "If that's who you've been waiting for you shan't find her. For I've seen and done and _lost_ far too much to be who I used to be. Surely you must know that?"

"I am mad, not simple," He sneers in objection, freeing his hand to grasp her chin, his gaze shifting hues to a burnt orange as he holds her in place, "Do not think me oblivious nor ignorant of the woman you've become Alice because I watched it happen. Saw the lonely little girl who lost her way become the broken maiden who slain the beast and remembered herself enough to become the one who stole the heart of the fool who sat waiting a lifetime just to catch another glimpse."

She swallows, "Hatter I-"

"I've seen the way you look at me when you think no one else is watching. The hitch in your breath when I'm near and your shiver at my touch," She did indeed shiver as his knuckles caressed her jaw, "You _want_ me Alice. And not as a mere friend in need of companionship. But as a woman _needs_ a man. Yet you did not stay."

His fingers fall away as he reaches the curve of her throat, "And I will not settle for a mere figment of my imagination."

She finds herself suddenly bereft as he steps away and almost sobs at the pain it causes her heart.

"It's true," She breathes, "Every word, I'll not deny it though I pray you'll forgive me."

"For loving me?" He snaps.

"For leaving you," She breathes, a single tear trailing her cheek, "For making you wait so very long…for not realising how I felt until I'd nearly lost you completely."

"Oh Alice," He sighs, dragging his palms wearily down his pale face, "How I wish you were here."

"As do I, Hatter." She whispers as the world around them gives way to the dull grey and damp of her cell and she curls herself into a ball to stave off the sudden chill.

"As do I."


End file.
